Yosigo

With only 10 of each print ever made, we present to you the rare opportunity to own a limited edition Yosigo artwork and take home a slice of summer.

José Javier Serrano (Donostia, 1981), aka Yosigo, is a Spanish fine art photographer from San Sebastian. One of Spain’s most influential contemporary photographers, Yosigo has been featured in several major exhibitions around the world.

He has also published an impressive array of books, such as “Mare de Deu”, “Riu Avall” and “Greetings From” devoted to mass tourism in the Mediterranean. Outside of his commercial work, shooting for familiar brands like Nutella, Decathlon, Estrella, and Jack Daniel’s, the mononymous photographer turns to beaches, nature and architecture as the setting for his personal projects.

Coming from a graphic design background, his images have undeniable aesthetic force and are the result of careful compositions where the light is almost a character of its own life.

Often shooting the scenes from afar with a 70-200 mm lens, Yosigo still manages to create compositionally strong photographs, balancing just the right ratio of people in the different corners of the frame with the approaching waves. The ocean, closer to emerald than blue, combined with the proximity of the tourists’ skin tones to the sand makes the image seem beautifully surreal, like looking into a telescope and finding a beach on Mars. The way the oblivious visitors roam innocently across the beaches is particularly notable, given how unaware they are that in the swarms and masses they come in, they eventually cover the entire coastline with their bronzed bodies.

Yosigo Cruise Ship Water Slide
Yosigo describes the creative process behind the series “UDA”, meaning summer in Basque:

“My beginnings as a photographer began with a search for spaces in the city where I was born, Donostia. The city and its surroundings are coastal landscapes, so I began to photograph the beaches compulsively. Throughout my career, between projects, I have always been photographing the same territory, La Concha beach, which is where I started. Always photographing the same space has allowed me to develop and evolve my own language. Initially, I was attracted by the scale, but little by little and as I watched the material, I began to be more interested in the characters and situations, I was looking for the repetition of patterns (for example people reading) and the abstraction within everyday elements. This search led me to want to explore other places but always within the same theme, the beaches, the sea, the sun, in short; the summer, UDA in Basque.
I have always felt an interest in tourism as a concept. I couldn't say what attracts me about tourism, I only know that it makes me happy to photograph it. This exhibition is a compilation of these summer vibes from the coasts of Spain.”

 

 

Yosigo exhibition in Bremen

Caroline Dowsett

Caroline Dowsett

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Otto Iram

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